The Way I See It is a blog published at least three times a week containing thoughts and analysis and irreverent musings on the local, state, and national sports world.

Nine was a big number last weekend

About this blog

By Dennis Miller

My name is Dennis Miller and I am a lifelong resident of Kirksville, MO. I have been totally blind since birth and a sports fanatic just as long. I like all sports but love baseball and am a proud lifelong member of Cardinal Nation. It is my honor
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My name is Dennis Miller and I am a lifelong resident of Kirksville, MO. I have been totally blind since birth and a sports fanatic just as long. I like all sports but love baseball and am a proud lifelong member of Cardinal Nation. It is my honor to be given the opportunity to write a blog for the Kirksville Daily Express and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

9 was a very important number this past weekend. On Friday night the St. Louis Cardinals scored 9 runs in defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 9 to 1 in one of the better offensive showings of the season. This game featured two home runs from Carlos Beltran, one from each side of the plate, and back to back home runs to start the game. The Cardinals batters were not only getting hit but they were being hit as well as the Pirates starting pitcher decided if he couldn’t get them out he might as well hit them in the head and he was gone after just four batters. Several other batters were hit on both sides but the plate umpire ruled all of those as accidental. The Pirates put up 9 runs of their own on Sunday as they totally silenced the Cardinals bats in one of those games that someone should have just pushed the reset button and started it over. Friday night’s game also featured an adventurous outing by struggling Cardinals pitcher Mitchell Boggs and that seemed to set the tone for the bullpen over the weekend who suffered a major meltdown on Saturday and were unable to stop the bleeding yesterday as the game totally got away from them in the last two innings. For some reason the Cardinals and Pirates can’t seem to play a normal uneventful game and just about every meeting features a bullpen meltdown, a starting pitcher meltdown, or some other form of torture for one or both team’s fans. In one of those flukes of the schedule that seem to be so common these days the Cincinnati Reds are back in St. Louis for the second time in three weeks for a three game series with the Cardinals beginning tonight.

On the other side of the state the Kansas City Royals took two out of three from the Cleveland Indians who were having trouble scoring runs until last night’s explosion against the Royals. Friday night’s game was rained out and the Royals won Saturday’s game and the first game of yesterday’s double header before the Indians went on the war path in the nightcap. The Tampa Bay Rays come calling on the Royals for a three game series beginning tomorrow. The Royals are still in first place in the Al Central but Detroit is coming on fast.

The Kirksville High School baseball team suffered its first NCMC conference loss on Friday night out at North Park as they fell to the Booneville Pirates 6 to 1. KHS pitching struggled a little bit last Thursday and Friday and having the weekend off couldn’t have come at a better time. The Tigers are in action tomorrow and Wednesday as the season is rapidly drawing to a close.

The KHS boys and girls track teams both had good showings at Hannibal over the weekend as they continue to get excellent individual and relay performances especially in the distance events.

The KHS boys tennis team also won on Friday as they defeated Centerville.

Kevin Harvick hung on to win the NASCAR race at Richmond on Saturday as he benifitted from a restart near the end of the race.

We’ll be back on Wednesday with a closer look at area sports teams and I’m sure we’ll have more to say about the Cardinals as well. I hope everyone can find the time to get out and enjoy this wonderful weather before the next round of cold and rain moves in later in the week. Thanks as always for supporting this and all the blogs on this site.
Have a terrific Monday!